Jerry Seinfeld on the lost art of creating fun TV spots

Tuesday

Dec 31, 2013 at 6:00 AM

The popular comic doesn't look anything like Don Draper (or his modern-day heirs) and doesn't work for an ad agency. Yet over the years, he has become sort of a guiding force on Madison Avenue, showing marketers how to dip their toes into new techniques and test emerging technology.

In an interview with Variety, Jerry Seinfield said he looked to the history of TV marketing for inspiration for new work with car maker Acura. "I think that kind of old advertising model has gotten lost a little bit," he said.

In eight new spots designed to accompany his streaming-video series, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," Seinfeld lampoons car ads that might have enjoyed a run on the three big broadcast TV networks in the 1950s and 1960s. In one, a family that would not seem out of place on "The Andy Griffith Show" or "Leave It To Beaver" chows down on a giant bowl of potato salad, while an announcer touts the trunk space of the Acura MDX.

This isn't the first time Jerry Seinfeld has taken a crack at commercial interruption. In 2004, he worked with ad firm Ogilvy to create what may be the first "webisode," or short commercial designed to stream online. In a 4-minute effort, Seinfeld cavorted about town with an animated Superman, talking about such things as how much mayonnaise to put on a sandwich or how to fix a DVD player.

He hatched the idea long before Super Bowl sponsors like Volkswagen and Chevrolet began to unspool sneak peeks of extra-long commercials they had designed for the annual gridiron classic; indeed, Seinfeld appeared in just such an ad for Acura in 2012.

In 2008, Microsoft tapped the comic to help it take on Apple at a time when the Seattle technology company had been assaulted by Apple's snarky "Mac vs. PC" campaign that portrayed Microsoft's mainstay PC as bureaucratic, fusty and resistant to change. Seinfeld was reportedly paid $10 million for the effort, which first came to notice before a single ad had launched due to a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal.

Part of the appeal of crafting commercials, Seinfeld said, is the chance to be creative and have fun without having to get tied up in a long-term commitment.